Spain's Repsol Discovers Gas in Algeria

Spanish energy major Repsol has made a significant gas discovery in south-eastern Algeria, the site of last November's terrorist attack on a Statoil-led facility.

The discovery is in the Sud-Est Illizi block in southern Algeria, according to Spanish newspapers and Britain's Financial Times. The fiind is the second since last November.

The Spanish oil company, which operates the block, has a 25.7% stake in the project, Enel SpA has 13.5%, GDF Suez has 9.8%, while the remaining 51% is held by Algeria's state-run energy entitiy, Sonatrach.

A spokesman confirmed that a report in the Financial Times was "completely" accurate.

The Sud-Est Illizi block is next to the In Amenas field, where al-Qaeda-linked militants attacked a gas plant in January and took dozens of foreign hostages. The incident left more than 60 people dead.

The report said that the Repsol-operated TGE-1 well hit a 50-metre column of gas and a preliminary test flowed at 235,000 cubic metres per day.

Repsol made a discovery on the same block in November last year with the Tihalatine South-1 well. That well, drilled to a depth of 1073 metres, flowed at 105,000 cubic metres per day.

Algeria, an Opec member, is the third-largest supplier of gas to Europe and boasts the 10th biggest gas reserves in the world. Hydrocarbon extraction makes up about 60% of national income.